For Hardware Makers, Sharing Their Secrets Is Now Part of the Business Plan - NYTimes.com

"Facebook showed plans last week for drone aircraft that beam lasers conveying high-speed data to remote parts of the world. As powerful as that sounds, Facebook already has something that could be even more potent: a huge sharing of its once-proprietary information, the kind of thing that would bring a traditional Silicon Valley patent lawyer to tears. Facebook is not alone. Technology for big computers, electric cars and high-technology microcontrollers to operate things like power tools and engines is now given away. These ideas used to be valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. To the new generation of technologists, however, moving projects and data fast overrides the value of making everything in secret ... Facebook has already shared designs for data storage, computer servers and rack designs, among other hardware, Mr. Parikh said, and has seen rapid improvements as a result.  Rather than just building and testing a handful of designs, Facebook gets to see dozens of variations that individuals and companies manufacture inexpensively. They often contract with prototype makers over marketplaces like the Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba, or they may even use three-dimensional printers ..."